An exploration of the re-presentation of intangible and ephemeral art

M.Tech. (Fine Art)The development of contemporary artistic practice, often termed ‘new media’ art, has bought about new challenges in the re-interpretation of conservational data for the curatorial re-presentation of such artworks. These challenges are intensified in artworks of a non-traditional, transient, intangible and / or ephemeral nature. As such, new media works embrace dynamism and fluidity as part of their intangibility and ephemerality. The conservation of such works now requires consideration of the various elements that make up the work, particularly those where the medium predicates meaning. In this study I investigate the institutions and systems which intervene in this conservation of intangible and ephemeral art for future re-presentation and exhibition. I argue that, by compiling notational data (as a work’s ‘score’) of culturally significant ephemeral and intangible artworks the curator is required to refer to the gathered notational data as a reliable guideline for the re-presentation of a work’s ‘true nature’. This raises questions about which parts of an artwork form its true nature and which components are considered variable allowing them to be altered, replaced or migrated. Any re-presentation of the work is therefore dependent on a thorough investigation of the artwork’s essential elements in terms of the artist’s intent, as well as an in-depth contemplation of external / environmental influences. The dynamic (and thus true) nature of specific ephemeral and intangible art objects in the work of Olafur Eliasson, James Webb as well as my own upon, re-presentation, is the focus of this research study